New Zealand - Blogabond

Restoration in Paraparaumu - Night 61

An hour long drive landed us just north of Paraparaumu at a privately-owned marshland restoration project. Held under the Queen Elizabeth II Land Trust, the land has been placed under covenants that will retain it in its undeveloped nature for perpetuity. The two owners of the land have been...

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exumenius on December 10, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

A Long Walkabout - Night 60

Although our location here in Lower Hutt, a suburb of Wellington, does not offer easy access to the central city, it more than makes up for it with proximity to some truly great natural areas. Not to allow these opportunities to go to waste, I spent the morning and early afternoon hiking...

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exumenius on December 9, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Home Sweet Home

From Wellington we caught the inter-island ferry into Picton and were blessed with a beautiful day, which not only made my first (and last) real impression of the capital city a good one, but made the entire crossing from the pillar box red tugs in the harbour to the grand beauty of Marlborough...

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Alex Kent on December 9, 2007 from Nelson, New Zealand

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

Exploring Wellington - Night 59

I decided to do the proper tourist thing today and explore downtown Wellington. The morning air was calm and pleasant, so rather than bus it, I happily hoofed it the 40 minutes to the Central Hutt train station where I caught the 8:33 into the city. As any guide book will tell you, you should...

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exumenius on December 8, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Trash Palace - Night 58

Rather than our usual natural conservation activities, today’s job occurred on the other end of the human material consumption spectrum: recycling wastes. The Trash Palace is an electronic waste refurbishment and recycling center owned and operated by a non-profit entity. Working in conjunction...

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exumenius on December 7, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Oblivion

Due to the boys having rather stringent requirements about where they spend their weekends - basically demanding a large settlement well populated by females, beer and dancing venues, we spent a couple of days here but shamefully I have little to report. After a month of fairly non-stop...

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Alex Kent on December 7, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

Come Again Another Day

It was still raining when we reached Taupo, which ruled out our sky dive hopes. Besides a satisfyingly torrential waterfall in the same beautiful turquoise of my Guatemalan favourite, Semuc Champey, there was nothing more to see. I mean to do central north island New Zealand no...

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Alex Kent on December 6, 2007 from Taupo, New Zealand

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

Otari Wilson's Bush - Night 57

We awoke to a dark sky and howling winds. It looked, smelled, and sounded like rain, but as fate would have it, New Zealand is in a drought and no rain would fall today. We drove to Otari Wilson’s Bush, one of the last remaining stands of native timber in the Wellington. Our morning chores...

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exumenius on December 6, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Eastbourne Dunes - Night 56

Today’s project took us to the east coast of Wellington Bay to the town of Eastbourne. Much like West Seattle, Eastbourne offers stunning views of the city skyline from across the water. The work itself, however, was less than stunning. Hours of weeding the sand dunes was quite boring –...

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exumenius on December 5, 2007 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Rain, Rain Go Away

The guidebook made a flippant aside about the smell lingering over this volcanic vent of a town. We laughed it off. Then we arrived and took it a little more seriously. Quite why anyone would choose to live in a town that smells perpetually of eggy farts is beyond me. Perhaps it's the...

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Alex Kent on December 5, 2007 from Rotorua, New Zealand

from the travel blog: On the Varieties of Nature

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